47 Facts About Ritchie Torres

Ritchie John Torres was born on March 12,1988 and is an American politician from New York.

Ritchie Torres served as the New York City Council member for the 15th district from 2013 to 2020.

Ritchie Torres was the first openly gay candidate to be elected to legislative office in the Bronx, and the council's youngest member.

Ritchie Torres chaired the Committee on Public Housing and was a deputy majority leader.

In 2016, Ritchie Torres was a delegate for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

In July 2019, Torres announced his bid for to succeed Representative Jose E Serrano.

Ritchie Torres won the November 2020 general election and assumed office on January 3,2021.

Ritchie Torres was one of nine co-chairs of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus in the 117th United States Congress.

Ritchie Torres was born on March 12,1988, in the Bronx.

Ritchie Torres's father is Puerto Rican and his mother was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents.

Ritchie Torres was raised by his mother in Throggs Neck Houses, a public housing project in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the East Bronx, where he was frequently hospitalized for asthma as a result of the mold in their apartment.

Ritchie Torres has described being "brutally assaulted" by a bully in the third grade.

Ritchie Torres came out while a sophomore "during a schoolwide forum on marriage equality".

Ritchie Torres is one of a small minority of congressmen who does not hold a college degree.

Ritchie Torres enrolled at New York University, but dropped out at the beginning of his sophomore year, as he was suffering from severe depression.

In that role, Ritchie Torres conducted site inspections and documented conditions, ensuring housing issues were promptly and adequately addressed.

At 25 years old, Ritchie Torres ran to succeed Joel Rivera as the councilmember for the 15th district of the New York City Council.

When he won the Democratic nomination for New York city council, Ritchie Torres became one of the first openly gay political candidates in the Bronx to win a Democratic nomination, and upon victory in the general election became the first openly gay public official in the Bronx.

Ritchie Torres served as a deputy leader of the city council.

Ritchie Torres made "the living conditions of the city's most underserved residents a signature priority".

Ritchie Torres characterized the practice as exploiting "an underclass of independent contractors", and hopes the city council can ban the practice altogether.

Ritchie Torres said the "medallion market collapse is a cautionary tale" and "one of the greatest government scandals in the history of New York City".

In July 2019, Ritchie Torres proposed legislation to address the movement in New York toward cashless business practices at stores and restaurants.

Ritchie Torres did so to preserve access for those who rely on cash for their purchases.

Ritchie Torres helped open the first homeless shelter for LGBT youth in the Bronx.

Ritchie Torres secured funds for senior centers to serve LGBT people in all five NYC boroughs.

Ritchie Torres said shooting incidents in New York City were up from 413 in the first half of 2018 to 551 in the same period of 2019.

In July 2019, Ritchie Torres announced his candidacy for the US House of Representatives for.

Ritchie Torres said he was seeking the office to pursue "his legislative passions of overhauling public housing and focusing on the issues of concentrated poverty".

Ritchie Torres favors maximizing social housing in the nation, including the ending of land-use bans of apartments, which he says will result in the reduction of carbon emissions, as well as increase affordable housing.

Ritchie Torres came under criticism for his willingness to take real estate cash donations during his campaign.

Ritchie Torres said he saw Diaz as "temperamentally and ideologically indistinguishable" from Donald Trump.

Ritchie Torres was endorsed by the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and the Congressional Equality Caucus.

Ritchie Torres was among the 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.

Ritchie Torres said his vote was motivated by the new SNAP requirements included in the deal, which raised the work requirements from able-bodied adults under age 50 who do not live with any dependent children to adults under age 54, and the diversion of $20 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service.

Ritchie Torres is viewed as an ally of the cryptocurrency industry.

Ritchie Torres is a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus and has been a prominent critic of SEC chair Gary Gensler's "regulation by enforcement" strategy towards cryptocurrencies.

Ritchie Torres has voiced support for a Green New Deal and was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters in 2020.

Ritchie Torres has called himself "the embodiment of a pro-Israel progressive" and has identified as a Zionist.

Ritchie Torres has described his "revulsion" to the "extremism" of the BDS movement that he says questions the legitimacy and existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

Ritchie Torres has contrasted BDS's stagnancy with what he called the "path to peace" presented by the Abraham Accords.

Ritchie Torres has said his first visit to Israel, led by the Jewish Community Relations Council in 2015, was a "life-changing experience".

In July 2023, Ritchie Torres was among 49 Democrats to break with President Joe Biden, by voting for a ban on cluster munitions to Ukraine.

Ritchie Torres called claims that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip a "blood libel".

Ritchie Torres voted in favor of three military aid package supplementals for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan respectively in April 2024, along with most Democrats.

In January 2025, Ritchie Torres was one of 48 Democrats to vote for the Laken Riley Act, which requires US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft.

Ritchie Torres later became one of 46 House Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for a Senate-amended version of the bill.